Kitty4670 wrote:
What is Pokemon about? People are going VERY CRAZY over this game. People died because of the game.
If you're looking for an overall explanation of the franchise, I'll try to give one here:
If you've seen JRPGs, the base gameplay of most Pokemon games is like that. You explore a world, go on various adventures, and get into random encounters with enemies in turn-based battles. The big thing about Pokemon though is that all of the different creatures you fight in battle can be captured, and your team of 6 is made up of these captured Pokemon. You gain EXP in battles like you would in any JRPG, by defeating the enemy Pokemon, but if you instead just weaken them without causing them to faint, and then throw a Pokeball at them, you can catch them. Once they're caught, they're yours for good; they'll fight on your side and can be levelled up, they can evolve into new forms, they can be bred, and they're often portrayed as being very intelligent creatures that have no problems with the idea of sparring with each other in battle (which is pretty much what it is, nobody ever actually dies, they just faint or something like that). Your character is a "Pokemon Trainer", and you will often fight other trainers too in battles that happen simply because trainers are competitive. Your goal in each of the main games is to reach all of the Gym locations (gathering points for the best/strongest Trainers), defeat the leaders in those (who will then give you these badge things) and then with those badges, head to the final battle and become the "best there is", basically. It's not exactly the deepest story ever, but it's always worked out well enough.
Part of the game is the addiction aspect, the desire to collect at least one of every single type of Pokemon (and there's a gazillion types). Some players also get into the competitive aspect; the main Pokemon series are actually very deep games with alot of complexity to them and they make for great PvP experiences, wether versus friends or random people online.
The game is of the rare "absolutely anyone can get into it" type. There's enough depth and such for more "hardcore" players to find, but at the same time it's also appealing to kids, or more casual players as you dont HAVE to deal with the deeper parts of the game if you dont want to. You have alot of options in how you approach it and there are tons of things to do.
It's been around for awhile... the first games were on the original Gameboy a million years ago, in all their monochrome glory. They were an instant hit to the point where the franchise instantly exploded, which was referred to as the "Pokemon craze" back then. It's been very popular among all sorts of gamers ever since and is one of those things LOTS of people recognize as it's popularity never really dropped. Hell, you should see what Google does if you search for a specific Pokemon by name. I was just stunned the first time I saw it do that. Doesnt matter which one you search for, it'll always do that thing.
There's tons of merchandise and such all over the place too; hell, it seems like EVERY single Pokemon has had SOMETHING made of them that people can buy. I have a plushie of my own favorite one, Kirlia, which isnt exactly one of the really popular ones, but I had absolutely no trouble finding something of it to buy.
So... yeah. It's a very popular thing, overall, and the main games are pretty darned good, and there's been various spin-offs too. Pokemon Go, on the other hand (the one that people get into so much trouble with), has next to no gameplay in it. It's ENTIRELY about just catching the things, except that you walk around the real world to do this instead of doing it in a game. It uses a GPS function and links up with the game's main servers to find locations where Pokemon appear at, and when you find one, your phone buzzes; you can then pull it up and try to catch it by flinging Pokeballs at it. The whole point of the game is to try to catch (or evolve) as many as possible, which is... not easy. I dont think anyone's managed to catch all of them yet, or even come close. While there's not much real gameplay to it (there's hardly even any combat, there's a sort of half-assed battle system but you only actually do that in extremely rare occaisions, when trying to take over gyms, which are found IRL via the same GPS function) people get utterly addicted to the collection aspect, and the fact that it gives them reasons to actually walk around IRL adds to it. The very memorable designs of the Pokemon themselves then adds to it further. And that kind of addiction can mess stuff up.
The game servers are a little weird when it comes to placing down gyms and Pokestops (locations where you can pick up items to use, such as Pokeballs and other things, which you need in order to progress). Those locations are very desirable, and the servers try to stick them anywhere that's been registered as a memorable location... usually landmarks or stuff. There's one somewhat near my house that's under this big huge clock that's on the side of a particular building for no good reason (seriously, it doesnt make sense that it's there) which someone registered into the system as a "landmark" at some point. But the system isnt very picky, and some of these landmarks A: dont make sense, and B: are in places that they REALLY shouldnt be, just because some idiot registered one there (this all was done way before release). This is why things like trespassing happens so much. I mean, really, it gets very stupid sometimes. I mentioned that clock, but there's actually 18 Stops at a park across the street, involving such "landmarks" as a soccer goal, a plaque on a wall, a pair of garbage cans, and a big patch of tall grass (which is right in the middle of a big blank field of short grass, gee, what a landmark), because some dolt wandered around just grabbing photos of every freaking object and registering them.
All that stuff put together, and you get people acting like utter oblivious morons when it comes to this. The game itself is harmless, but people are just... so damn stupid. Parents in particular need to make sure to watch their kids with stuff like this, to make sure that they arent breaking rules/laws or waddling idiotically into a busy street because they're watching the map on their phone.
26 Jan 2016, 3:50 pm
Which of them is your favorite? Mine's Dusknoir. 
